Anoushka Shankar To Perform In Sydney
The ‘Queen of the sitar’ Anoushka Shankar is to tour Australia early next year performing her spellbinding Land of Gold album and show live on stage at WOMADelaide ( 9-12 March, Adelaide’s Botanic Park) at the Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House (Sunday, March 11) and then on to Hamer Hall, Arts Centre (Tuesday, March 13). Tickets for Sydney and Melbourne go on sale on Monday October 16.
Land of Gold, which was released by Deutsche Grammophon in April 2016, was inspired by people fleeing civil war, oppression, poverty and hardship. “I believe that art can make a difference, it connects us to our hearts, bringing us back to what really matters. Music has the power to speak to the soul” says Shankar.
Shankar will be accompanied on stage by extraordinary percussionist and hang player Manu Delago who co-wrote the album, along-with Sanjeev Shankar on shehnai and Tom Farmer double bass and keyboards.
A six-time Grammy ®nominee, she was last in Australia in 2010, performing along-side her father, the late great sitar guru Ravi Shankar. Honing her skills under his guidance from the age of 9, by the age of 20, Anoushka had made three classical recordings for EMI/Angel and received her first Grammy® nomination, becoming the first Indian female and youngest-ever nominee in the World Music category. In 2005, she released her self-produced breakthrough album Rise, which earned her a second Grammy® nomination. Following this nomination Anoushka became the first Indian artist to perform at the Grammy® Awards.
Anoushka has taken the aesthetics of Indian classical music beyond its traditions in her collaborations with some of the world’s leading orchestras, including the Berlin, London & New York Philharmonic, and with artists as diverse as Sting, M.I.A, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Joshua Bell and Herbie Hancock and the progressive fields of jazz and electronica. Festival appearances have included Edinburgh, Prague Spring, WOMAD, Glastonbury and the BBC Proms in London. and the progressive fields of jazz and electronica.
Her album Traveller was a critically-hailed exploration of Indian Classical music and Spanish flamenco. This was followed by Traces of You, produced by Nitin Sawhney and featuring Anoushka’s half-sister Norah Jones on vocals, and Home, a purely Indian Classical album where she returned to the Ragas her father had taught her
Anoushka has authored the book Bapi: The Love of My Life, a biographical portrait of her father, and been a regular columnist for New Delhi’s First City magazine and the Hindustan Times. She is an avid supporter of women’s rights and social justice.
